The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Kennedy Agyapong and Alan Kyerematen took the top three spots in NPP’s super delegates conference polls but a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana says this result is not surprising.
In a press statement, Prof Ransford Gyampo noted that the delegates are politically aligned and as such their voting pattern was expected.
He noted that there is rather more work to be done to win the grassroots for any of these presidential aspirants to lead the party.
“I have seen the first three winners in the NPP Super-Delegates Elections. My preliminary thoughts are that nothing is surprising about the placements of 1-3. The majority of the delegates were “politically made” by the establishment and their continuous stay in office as appointees, and even as elected people, is based on the support of the establishment. They couldn’t have varied their votes,” he noted.
Prof Gyampo added that “Ken also garnered his kind of great show among those who felt they could get his support in terms of money in their future electoral and political endeavours. He could be a kingmaker and would easily nominate some of these guys for positions. But what makes him a serious force in the future is that he is also a very much grassroots person.”
The political science lecturer stated that scientific data on the NPP delegates’ preferences has shown that Kennedy Agyapong and Alan Kyerematen are likely to garner more votes during the national conference.
As such, Prof Gyampo believes that the Vice President needs to work more to win the hearts of the grassroots while Mr Kyerematen must work hard to win the party’s leadership over and Mr Agyapong must work to win both sides.
“The future of the NPP Presidential Aspirant race is heavily pregnant with definitely hugely uncertain possibilities…Those who have just voted can still change their mind towards any direction; no one must be complacent and no one must give up.”
“Delegates at the grassroots must remain fired up to decide who must lead the party according to only their conscience, and never the outcome of the just-ended exercise. Congratulations to all aspirants, especially our Veep, Ken, and Alan,” he added.
Background
Four presidential candidates successfully sailed through in the just-ended New Patriotic Party’s Super Delegates Conference to shortlist five flagbearer aspirants.
Although the Super Delegates Conference was expected to help select five candidates, two candidates have tied, requiring another process to decide the fifth candidate to make the final five.
The Vice President led with 68.15% of the total votes cast, followed by Kennedy Agyapong who polled 15.03% of the total votes cast.
Alan Kyerematen came in third with 10.29% of the total votes cast, and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto came fourth with 3.90%.
The candidates who tied for fifth place are Francis Addai Nimo and Boakye Kyeremateng Ayarko.